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// No Such Thing as Perfect 
// Story: Love is Power II: Crash and Burn 
// by ThaStrangr 
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_____________________________Three Weeks Later________________________________


Fluttershy had noticed them. They were subtle, but they were there. The signs. When they were speaking, she would often seem distant, as though she didn’t want to be there. Twilight had slept at her desk the night before. She said she had a letter she needed to write. When Fluttershy asked to read it, Twilight had a near panic attack. Things had changed so much in the past month. Fluttershy began to experience a sensation she had not felt in over a year: fear.



She was afraid that the pony she loved was pulling away from her. She was afraid her family was falling apart. She was afraid that it was all her fault.


“Fluttershy?” The voice knocked her out of her trance. She looked down to see a little black filly gazing worriedly up at her.

“Oh, sorry Nyx.” Fluttershy looked around the kitchen. The only other occupant was a purple dragon at the sink cleaning dishes. “Where did Twilight go?”

“She went back upstairs. What’s up with her lately?” Fluttershy felt a sudden moistness in her eyes.

“I don’t know. She’s been so distant lately. I’m worried… that she doesn’t love me anymore.” Nyx reached up and wrapped her forelegs around the mare.

“That’s crazy. I know I haven’t been around long, but as long as Twilight has been raising me, I’ve never seen her as happy as she has been this past year. You know, aside from reading to me, she hasn’t so much as picked up a book since two got together. She’s mad for you.”

“She… stopped reading?”

“She said it cuts into her time with you.” A warm, relaxing sensation came over Fluttershy. Reading had pretty much been Twilight’s entire life. Fluttershy felt so remarkable in knowing that Twilight’s beloved books were left in a perpetual solitude for her. 

“Well, perhaps I’m reading too much into this. I’m going to go talk to her.”

Fluttershy playfully smooched the cheek of the little bundle in her forelegs and got to her hooves, prancing toward the door with confidence anew. As she drew closer and closer to the peak of the mountain of stairs, her hope and optimism grew. She had nothing to fear. Everything was going to be fine.

She approached the door, which she noticed to be slightly ajar. She heard a voice echoing from within. After a few moments of intense internal warfare, she carefully positioned her ear next to the small opening and listened.

“I don’t know how long I can keep this up,” the disembodied voice rang through her ears, “ It’s so hard to talk to her these days. I’ve tried to avoid her. I’ve been sleeping in. Staying up later. It gives me more time to think about this. I’m starting to think the time has come. I can’t hide any more.” 

Fluttershy crept away from the door. She’d heard all she needed, and trembled back downstairs. She approached the couch they had placed in the rear of the room, her breath shaking with every step, and eased slowly onto it. 


She battled her emotions relentlessly for control. Her cheek began to feel wet. She touched a hoof to her face and was met with a small, thin streak of water. A year of happiness and love gathered in her mind. More liquid poured from her eye sockets as the memories flashed before her. All of the joy her new family brought her- she wasn’t going to give that up. If it took her last breath, she would win Twilight’s heart back.